AG’s office urges sexual abuse victims to contact victim assistance hotline

By Katie Moore
Topeka Capital-Journal
August 21, 2018

http://www.cjonline.com/news/20180821/ags-office-urges-sexual-abuse-victims-to-contact-victim-assistance-hotline

In the wake of a call for a statewide investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt urged victims to contact the state’s victim assistance hotline.

The hotline can be reached at (800) 828-9745 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“I admire and encourage those victims of childhood sexual abuse who continue to choose to come forward, sometimes after many years have passed,” Schmidt said in a statement. “The physical or sexual abuse of a child is a serious crime in Kansas.”

On Monday, attorney Rebecca Randles said her firm identified 238 priests accused of abuse from five dioceses in Kansas and Missouri. Joined by four survivors, Randles urged the attorney generals in Kansas and Missouri to convene large-scale investigations similar to the grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania which discovered more than 1,000 victims.

Randles said she has about a dozen open cases against area priests, one of which involves a former Topeka priest at St. Matthew’s Parrish.

Schmidt’s office said victims may report abuse to local law enforcement agencies, who are generally responsible for investigations.

“Unlike Pennsylvania, Kansas does not have a statewide or multi-county grand jury system under authority of the attorney general,” spokeswoman Jennifer Montgomery said.